News & Events

Seminar to share project findings

Date: 09/10/2014

A half-day conference en-titl­ed ‘Towards sustainable maritime traffic within the Malta-Sicily Channel’ was held as part of the Biodivalue project for local maritime stakeholders to explain the project’s findings and outputs so far.

The project’s main aim is to quantify, in economic terms, the impacts such as in terms of water quality and alien species, of maritime traffic in the Malta-Sicily Channel. This is achieved by monitoring the traffic, developing an online database, identifying the different typologies of vessels and resorting to the assistance of environmental economists to translate such information into monetary terms for policy-makers and decision-makers.

The project also aims to develop an automated probe, known as TowFish, to measure a number of different water quality parameters as it glides through the water.

This event was jointly organised by the International Ocean Institute – Malta Operational Centre (IOI-MOC) and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Malta and NGO Gal Xlokk.

The Biodivalue project is funded under the Italia-Malta 2007-2013 operational programme, and involves eight partners under the aegis of ARPA Siracusa.